February in the studio: collecting, dreaming

I've been collecting images this month, fossil images relating to the places I've been to and hope to go to. This is an offshoot of my desire to make artwork with and of the numinous places of my life. I plan to paint and draw with found organic materials, as I've mentioned before. I won't be using fossils themselves, I hasten to say, but will incorporate that imagery somehow into my work, if and however it works out.

I've also been generating lots of images for illustration projects, one of which I finished, but can't share until it is published in April. But I CAN and do keep the leftover bits and pieces and recycle them in the pages of my  journal.

First, though, the drawing below. It's throwback to an old, old theme of mine from my early years of blogging, in which I collected interesting objects found on my walks, brought them home and drew and painted them. As usual, it was the textures and gestures of the objects that captured me.

I have birds! My most recent illustration assignment for Charleston Style & Design centered around singing birds in a cherry tree. I put my cd, A Field Guide to Eastern Bird Songs, on the laptop and played it as I drew. Perfect inspiration!

Here are some of the aforementioned illustration leftovers, pasted on a page in my journal:

Below, more leftovers, from two different projects, appearing together in the pages of my journal.  A happy pairing, I thought:

Below, a spread of the fossil studies I mentioned earlier:

There is something very compelling to me about connecting in my artwork, in any way I can, to the deep energy of the world we stand on. It's that old sweet song... channeling the ch'i.

In a few days, I'll be back in the San Francisco to see my daughter and my dearest friend Kathleen. I'll be sketching there, you can count on it. 

I'll tell you then about the place I've recently added to my plans this year, a country connected to Norway by virtue of the events of the Caledonian Orogeny. What's four million years' separation between friends? I'm beside myself with glee, thinking of the new place!

See you soon!

Comments

[Cathy]

I absolutely adore this first drawing of branches : I love the txtures, I love that pure white standing out! Gorgeous!!!
These pages of your journal are so fresh, the lines so light and so confident at the same time! I'm glad to see you so busy and so full of projects! The feeling is contagious ;-)

[marly youmans]

Lovely scatterings of birds! Love the negative space as well. Like lovely silence around the birdsong.

[Laura]

Thank you, Kate! I guess I'd better find a place around here soon ;D. I'm thinking the farm of two of our friends, a beloved place to them, would be a good start.

[Laura]

Thank you, Maria! I'm eager to show you!

[Lucy]

How exciting, I look forward to hearing about the new travel plan!

I'm especially drawn to that little brown chickadee type of bird in the second picture, middle of the bottom row, the fluidity of the line and the ink suggesting the quickness of the bird. But they're all marvellous, of course!

[Sue Pownall]

Lovely!